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Personal planes AKA How hard would it be to build one youself?

Wjolcz

By Wjolcz
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Wjolcz

Wjolcz

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Posted

So I've been wondering lately "Will there ever be a mass-produced personal flying car? If so, when?" And while reading about those I stumbled upon The Ford Flivver and thought that it's a pretty simple design. Seems like the plans for those were in as early as 1927. Henry Ford wanted his "Ford T of the skies" to be cheap and available for everyone, though it would probably still require you to have a pilot's license to fly.

Then I asked myself "Would I be able to build one based on what I know from playing with FAR and playing various flight sims?" And, please don't scream "BUT OP YOU'RE NOT EXPERIENCED ENOUGH! YOU WILL DIE!".

Don't worry. I don't have plans to do such thing.

Not in the nearest future, at least.

So I would like to spark a discussion. Has anyone built their own personal and cheap(-ish) plane in real life? Maybe someone from the KSP forums? I know there are modellers, but did they have courage to go bigger? What kind of equipment and knowledge would you need in order to build and fly your own tiny personal plane?

 

More stuff to read about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_(aircraft)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Flivver
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2001-12/looking-back-henry-fords-flivver

I also remember reading about a plane with two piston engines and counter-spinning double prop which was built by a guy to beat speed records, or something. I don't remember the name of it though, so if anyone knows what I'm talking about please post the link to it.

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p1t1o

p1t1o

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42 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

I also remember reading about a plane with two piston engines and counter-spinning double prop which was built by a guy to beat speed records, or something. I don't remember the name of it though, so if anyone knows what I'm talking about please post the link to it.

Funnily enough:

 

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RizzoTheRat

RizzoTheRat

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There's a lot of kit build aircraft out there, more so in the US I think than in Europe due the way they're legislated.  Quite a few ultralights and gyros are only available as home assembly I believe.

 

On a slightly different note, I remember seeing a documentary about a kit build aircraft company, and apparently it cost them more to develop the manuals to teach people how to assemble the plane than it cost them to design and build the plane in the first place.

Edited by RizzoTheRat
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SinBad

SinBad

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have a look at gyro copters. simple to maintain, easy to fly, cheap. and lots of clubs all over the place.

 

on the subject of personal air cars in common use: google self flying air car. the passengers dont need to know air traffic control regulations, nor do they need to know how to fly. ground traffic is bad enough. can you imagine every hoon with a tricked out aircar doing whatever they wanted?

althogh, i would rather a personal jet bike

bb6f51f47100dd6049d679478fd551da.jpg

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Elthy

Elthy

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From a technical standpoint a small propellerdriven plane could be realy cheap, if you would mass-produce them like cars. There are other issues which makes this impossible, though...

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RizzoTheRat

RizzoTheRat

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, SinBad said:

have a look at gyro copters. simple to maintain, easy to fly, cheap. and lots of clubs all over the place.

I toyed with the idea a few years ago, as a local club has a couple of twin seater gyros and were offering a part ownership scheme, I think it was something like £9,000 to get a licence and a 20th share in the airframe which seemed like a really good deal.

Given how much time a mate spends fixing his Tuono I think if I had a flying bike I'd want a Yamaha or a Honda rather than an Aprillia :D

OP - If you're interested in having a go at flying then gliding is about the cheapest way to learn 3 axis (as opposed to weight shift like hang gliders), and most clubs will take you up for a taster flight quite cheaply.  Clubs usually have their own aircraft that you rent time on (my old club included the first half hour in your membership and then you paid by the minute after that), but lots of members will get together to buy group owned aircraft too.  A decent non competition glider can be bought for a similar price to a family car.

Edited by RizzoTheRat
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A35K

A35K

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I remember reading somewhere about a guy in East Berlin building his own plane to escape to the West, and I think he managed it. However he was not just a random guy, I think he was an engineer of some sort.

Edited by A35K
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RizzoTheRat

RizzoTheRat

Posted
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14 hours ago, A35K said:

I remember reading somewhere about a guy in East Berlin building his own plane to escape to the West, and I think he managed it. However he was not just a random guy, I think he was an engineer of some sort.

And the guys who built a glider inside a PoW camp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Cock

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Val

Val

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15 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

Usually they're powered by a pair 15hp piston engines. Also certified for aerobatics!

RC Turbines? I didn't know they were rated for human flight.

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VirtualCLD

VirtualCLD

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On 3/3/2016 at 11:21 AM, Val said:

Gliders are awesome. I was a licensed glider pilot back in the early 90's.

You probably still are, if you live in the US. Not sure how glider pilot licenses work elsewhere though.

If you are really interested, then I agree with looking into kit planes, but it depends on where in the world you live. In the US, a true ultralight doesn't require any formal license, but it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to get some proper training before hand. 

 

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Val

Val

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1 hour ago, VirtualCLD said:

You probably still are, if you live in the US. Not sure how glider pilot licenses work elsewhere though.

 

I live in Denmark. Here the license expires after 2 years, if you don't fly a certain amount of flights and hours every year, plus take a yearly renewal test.

 

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merlinux

merlinux

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Posted

  Vans and lancair  are 2 famous Kit planes manufacturers. No Ive never made one myself nor do I have a PPL ahaha (I wish). But being an aviation enthusiast I spot them here and there. Vans RVs are probably the most common kit planes around. It is far from easy to assemble a kit plane (and get it certified), it is also not cheap.

And yes what you are speaking about is definitely the 'cri cri'. An amazingly ugly but fast performing little plane. Ive heard stories about people mocking the thing when the guy who designed it first went to plane shows. That untils it started overtaking some bi props heh heh.

I do fly virtually on FSX and other FS. And to date my favourite plane to fly is a model of the lancair legacy. An absolute beauty of a bird.

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